Words of Eternal Life

Peace of God which passeth all understanding

2014-03-08T13:36:00.002-08:00

John 14:27

"27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

John 16:33

"33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Jeremiah 32:27

"27 Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?"

John 14:27; It was common conversational language for the Jews at the time to give salutations of peace to their neighbors, with the first five words of this verse being very common, almost verbatim and spoken very frequently. Yet Christ quickly makes a clear and obvious distinction between the greeting of the day and His true power to give absolute and spiritual and eternal peace.

John 16:33; Christ taught His gospel to offer us all peace in this life, which though precious it may be, pales in comparison to the possibility of eternal life in the world to come. This world and it's imperfect and sometimes evil nature will bring tribulation to the righteous who are "not of this world" (John 8:23). But if we walk with Christ and believe on Him and His promises, we will overcome the world as well.

Jeremiah 32:27; With all the commotion and distress which occurs at a seemingly constant and never-ending rate, only the God of Heaven and Earth, who knows and sees all, who loves infinitely, who is the same in all ages and eras, who has given us the perfect plan of salvation, only He could rightly give us the command to be at peace in all such trials, to doubt not, to fear not.

To these I suppose a host of others could be added, such as Philippians 4:7, the source for the title of this post.

I add to my own words and humble testimony the words of an Apostle, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

"No, it is not without a recognition of life’s tempests but fully and directly because of them that I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm. Always remember in that biblical story that He was out there on the water also, that He faced the worst of it right along with the newest and youngest and most fearful. Only one who has fought against those ominous waves is justified in telling us-as well as the sea-to 'be still.' Only one who has taken the full brunt of such adversity could ever be justified in telling us in such times to 'be of good cheer.'

"No one’s eyes were more penetrating than His, and much of what He saw pierced His heart. Surely His ears heard every cry of distress, every sound of want and despair. To a degree far more than we will ever understand, He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Indeed, to the layman in the streets of Judea, Christ’s career must have seemed a failure, a tragedy, a good man totally overwhelmed by the evils surrounding Him and the misdeeds of others. He was misunderstood or misrepresented, even hated from the beginning. No matter what He said or did, His statements were twisted, His actions suspected, His motives impugned. In the entire history of the world no one has ever loved so purely or served so selflessly—and been treated so diabolically for His effort. Yet nothing could break His faith in His Father’s plan or His Father’s promises.

"Because Christ’s eyes were unfailingly fixed on the future, He could endure all that was required of Him, suffer as no man can suffer except it be “unto death,” as King Benjamin said, look upon the wreckage of individual lives and the promises of ancient Israel lying in ruins around Him and still say then and now, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” How could He do this? How could He believe it? Because He knows that for the faithful, things will be made right soon enough. He is a King; He speaks for the crown; He knows what can be promised. He knows that “the Lord … will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. … For the needy shall not alway[s] be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.” He knows that “the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” He knows that “the Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.” ~ Jeffrey R. Holland in "An High Priest of Good Things to Come” https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1999/10/an-high-priest-of-good-things-to-come?lang=eng

What are some of your favorite scriptures on God's promised peace? What else can you add to these and other verses about our Father's unchanging love?

Patterns of Revelation

2014-03-05T13:37:00.001-08:00

These verses from all across the standard works portray the bridges of spiritual communication from God to His children.

Isaiah 28:10

"10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"

Doctrine & Covenants 98:11-12

"11 And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, that ye shall live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.
12 For he will give unto the faithful line upon line, precept upon precept; and I will try you and prove you herewith."

Abraham 3:25

"25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;"

From these verses we see that The Lord gives us what we can handle when we can handle it. Then he gives us more as we qualify for it. He is frugal and efficient with what revelation he bestows. As we prove ourselves to Him with what little He has allotted to us, He then determines what we need further. I'd like to emphasize the frugal and efficient characteristic. Brent, a good friend of mine from Surprise, AZ, impressed that to my mind a few months ago when he used those very words, frugal and efficient when talking about revelation. God will not pour knowledge on us without our efforts and readiness to receive it, nor will He ever shove it down our throats. Agency or free will is the motivating power in all this. He cannot take away or supersede our right to choose and act for ourselves, which then brings consequences and outcomes according to the actions we make. If the Father were to impart such regardless, it would not only invade our agency, but would also frustrate His established principles of obedience and blessings. There would be no reward or growth, just mindless information being thrust upon us with no real purpose. But thankfully God is a God of order as well as mercy and love.

How have the principles of revelation helped your understanding increase?

Remember Lot's Wife: A Sermon in Three Words

2014-03-04T12:55:00.001-08:00

Luke 17:32

32 Remember Lot’s wife.

These three words convey multitudes of warning, admonition, and even blessing to some degree. If we take The Lord's counsel seriously, to look forward with faith and trust in Him, and not look back, we will be blessed. We must not look back to previous times of transgression with guilt, for we have been forgiven and cleansed through the Atonement. We must not look back to previous times of perceived happiness, for we are to seek continual growth and never "plateau" in our progression. We must not look back to previous times of trial with bitterness, for we never have been and never will be forsaken by our Father who created us. We must not look back to the things of the world we may too easily be caught up in, for they shall decay and corrupt and cannot satisfy, and cannot produce any degree of salvation.

These thoughts came to me in conjunction with the very story of Lot in Genesis. They were commanded to leave a city rife with wickedness and to not look back as they went. His wife looked back, whatever that may connote in Biblical language. The consequence was disastrous, and the message applicable to today can be as well.

What are your thoughts and perspectives on this verse?